


make a history (i will save our damned souls)

by sammyspreadyourwings



Series: of trees that fall into the sea [1]
Category: Bohemian Rhapsody (Movie 2018), Queen (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Witchcraft, Character Death, Character Study, Coming of Age, Death of an Original Character, Family Drama, Family Secrets, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Introspection, Magical Realism, Secrets, Spells & Enchantments, Witchcraft, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:01:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27321631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sammyspreadyourwings/pseuds/sammyspreadyourwings
Summary: Eloise May always knew what she was meant to be, she found comfort in that, and then her grandson, Brian May was born.
Series: of trees that fall into the sea [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1746139
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	make a history (i will save our damned souls)

**Author's Note:**

> Okay okay, there is a lot of details in here, I don't know if they're spoilers, but they do lean heavily into the main story - so if you're unfamiliar with it and don't want any sort of filler information please read The Stories Spells and Shadows Weave (I can tell I'm damned)  
> otherwise Enjoy!!
> 
> This wraps up Rocktober for me!

Eloise May was relieved when Ruth was five years old and still not showing any sort of magic. She thinks once that Ruth might be a Dream Walker, but that is easier to ignore, safer to ignore. If the May Coven dies with her, then that is will happy. The burden is one that she gladly caries.

The May Coven is cursed. They had been since they took Death as their Paragon. Death had been benevolent and a kind Paragon – he is not behind the curse. Other Covens had been born and bred on greed and power, they chose their Paragons to get ahead and to have strength. Death had been condemned as dark – but the founder had brought it to the light.

They saw the power in Death – but not to get ahead. So, Death had given them a boon, they were allowed to commune with the spirits – in some case walk among them. Where others would be haunted and attract malevolent spirits, the Mays would treat them as friends. They would see no threat from the Kingdom of the Dead.

However, that boon soon proved to be the curse. Many wanted the power, they sought powerful witches from ages past to guide them and their Covens. When they had not done so willingly, they were removed from the equation.

Eloise had not wanted that for her children. She had begged and prayed and even created a spell to suppress the magic if needed. Only she need not worry, the blood of the non-magic humans had finally overpowered the May blood. So, Eloise had put away her books and potions and plants, only to bring them out for the necessary magics.

She could not turn her back on the spirits that have so dutifully walked side by side with her family. Sigils and runs marked the walls and the woods of her house. Ruth grew up to them with a blind eye – thinking her mother odd but nothing more.

And then Eloise May had been presented with a grandchild. So young and innocent – but even she could sense the gathering of spirits around him.

By the time Brian May was five years old, Eloise had pulled out her books and potions and plants. She crafted and tested and taught the boy the basic respect of the dead. Brian had never quite been tamed by Harold and Ruth’s strict adherence to mannerisms and society’s standards. The boy was kind and the boy was soft and the boy never realized that the neighbor’s boy he played with was no longer walking the Earth in the same way as him.

There was something dark. Darker than Eloise could protect Brian from, so young and so untrained and so new to the world Brian could not protect himself. She thinks, perhaps, this is the greatest turn of the curse. The nightmares had begun and she could feel the damage already forming. It is the first time that she had wished for the power to commune directly with the spirits, but half-answers of oracles and brewers and naturalists gave her nothing.

The tarot decks refused to answer her call and pendulums refused to swing.

What had been comforting energy when she was born, and she lived grows dark around the house – spirits that had been good friends scattered to safer havens. Brian believed his friend moved away.

And so Eloise May pulled out an old and scribbled spell, offering forgiveness on a shrine in the moonlight as she poured what she could into the stone. Finally, the stone transmutes to wood and her hands looked as though they had touched the book of ages.

She had never seen the spirit world so clear; it grows even clearer when she hands the pendant off to Brian, secure with his promise to never take it off.

When she closes her eyes, she awakens a moment later to the place between worlds. Not the spirit world, which lingers on the edges in broken glass – it looks like the living at the same time. As she turns, she turns only to stare into the gaunt and broken face of her grandson, the true Last One of the May Coven.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, please leave your thoughts and comments below or come talk to me on tumblr.


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